Body Cam Video Released Of Wild Officer-Involved Shooting

LAKE BALBOA (CBSLA) — As part of their continuing effort to have more transparency, the LAPD released another body cam video Friday of an officer-involved shooting.

This incident occurred in Lake Balboa on July 7.

LAPD cameras were rolling on July 7th, when a woman called for help saying her son was drunk, suicidal and left home with a gun.

Surveillance video shows Christopher Terry, 28, walking in an alley, with the gun in hand. He later sits against a wall. Officers’ talked with Terry on the phone and tried to get him to calm down and put the gun down.

“Okay, I understand the light is irritating you, but we can’t see the gun and we don’t want you to touch the gun, okay? That’s all we are worried about,” one officer is heard saying.

Terry told the officers the gun was on his left side, but the officers said they didn’t see it.

Police said he fired at them and they fired back. The sounds of a hail of bullets and screaming fill the night air.

Terry began shooting at the officers. The LAPD says you can see the muzzle flash from his gun. The officers returned fire and Terry was hit.

The suspect was taken to the hospital to be treated and was later booked. A bullet hole was left in the fence in the direction of the officers.

“I was like laying on the floor, I was scared because I didn’t want no bullets coming to us,” said neighbor Janet Brooks.

She lives near the alley and heard all the shooting.

“We saw police coming from everywhere, we came outside, they told us to back in, there was a shooting,” Brooks recalled.

She and another neighbor KCAL9’s Rachel Kim spoke with say they’re glad the LAPD is releasing videos like this.

“So they can catch them on camera so they know what’s going on, who’s right and who’s wrong,” Brooks says.

“When you got it on video, you’ve got a lot fo evidence. It’s good for people to see that these things happen,” says neighbor John Rom.